Mr Perry was speaking during a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.
“It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and keep them off our border,” he said.
Such a move would go far beyond current US involvement in Mexico’s drugs war.
The suggestion is also likely to irritate Mexico’s government over the sensitive issue, correspondents say.
Governor Perry gave no further details of what sort of possible military intervention he would consider.
“I don’t know all the different scenarios that would be out there,” he said.
“But I think it is very important for us to work with them to keep that country from failing”.

Let us hope that he didn’t clear this idea with his campaign advisers. First, the Mexican government would most likely not approve such support. (Without their support, it is no longer assistance, but rather an invasion.) So perhaps it’s a moot point. Second, the move is entirely unnecessary for a nation with a broken army, deficits as far as the eye can see, and overflowing prisons. If Perry, or any leader, truly wanted to win the drug war, they would defund the violence by legalizing the drugs the cartels are fighting to traffic. It is sad that no serious political leaders – except for and – are willing to state the obvious: we Americans like our marijuana and cocaine, and Mexicans are dying to get it to us.

2 responses to “Troops Are Not Needed”

Wholeheartedly agree, Mr. Perry’s comments were much more likely thoughtless pandering rather than signs of imbecilic chauvinism. However, while legalization of some or most illicit drugs may be a necessary and welcome step to scale back the human wreckage it is unlikely to be a sufficient factor in draining the Mexican trafficking orgs. While our capitalists have been wary to make new investments and expand in this economic uncertainty, the drug lords have long been following your financial planner’s advice to diversify revenue streams and spread risk. See the link below with some graphics of DTO revenue composition based on recent RAND data. Of the two major cartels left standing (more or less) the Zetas in particular see the drug trade as only part (and probably a minority) of their revenue-gaining operations. Even the Sinola cartel, originally a more traditional drug trafficking than the Zetas has diversified to the point that when California was considering legalizing marijuana use any claims that this would seriously impact the cartels were laughable. Reducing 8-15% of a DTOs profits will not sink the operation, if anything it will make it more aggressive about its other, likely more directly nefarious activities. In conclusion, legalization-yes, the current policies are hypocritical and harmful on lots of levels but just don’t expect it to “solve” the Mexican Situation.